11 Books That Impacted My Life

List of Books That I Always Admire For

I have compiled below a list of books which I have loved and have been impacted positively by. They have shaped the way I live my life and conduct my daily affairs with integrity and soul.

Around 130 million books have been published in the history of humanity. Books play a significant role in our life. They say that “When you open a book, you open a new world”. Books are our friends in a real sense. They demand nothing from us. They give us plenty of joy. We also learn a lot from them.
They take us into a different world of imagination.

I probably got into the habit of reading when I was 8. Initially as a means to shave off boredom and subsequently as a hobby. Since my childhood, I had various interests and that shows in my reading list which I have compiled below. Sports, Cinema, Literature, History, Fiction, (Auto) Biography, Motivational, Thrillers, and a load of others.

I started reading short stories out of 'Sarita' and 'Grihashobha' and then articles from 'Sportstar' and 'Filmfare'. 'Chacha Chaudhary', 'Phantom' and 'Rajan Iqbal' were absolute favorites. I do not know when I graduated to a bigger league - reading books which were more than entertainment and taught few lessons of life.

I have compiled below, the list of top 11 books which have impacted me positively and shaped the foundation of my being:

(1) The Fountainhead - By Ayn Rand (A life turner for me and soul searcher)

(2) The Story of My Experiment with Truth - By Gandhi (Shook me up and molded me positively)

(3) Discovery of India - By Nehru (Taught me History of India)

(4) Iacocca: An Autobiography - By Lee Iacocca (meant for lovers of the automobile)

(5) Godan and Gaban - By Premchand (soulful and superbly written about socio-economic condition of farmers and poor in pre-independent India. Premchand is my grandfather)

(6) The God of small things - By Arundhati Roy (for the way she has told the story)

(7) Lolita - By Vladimir Nabakov (a passionate love story between a girl and an older man)

(8) City of Djinns - By William Dalrymple (Beautiful book on Delhi and its history)

(9) Kamayani - By Jaishankar Prasad (An epic telling the story of Manu)

(10) The Godfather - By Mario Puzo ( Mafia, Mafia and more)

(11) The Sunil Gavaskar Omnibus - By Sunny (Initial cricketing days of Sunny, Sunny's idols, one day glitters etc.)